Day: April 8, 2019

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Intel announced a basketful of Xeon processors, Agilex FPGAs, and Optane DIMMs to power next-generation servers and network gear. The components’ use of proprietary interconnects is raising concerns among some of its largest customers given that Intel’s CPUs dominate in servers.

Strategically, Intel has tied its CPUs, FPGAs, and memories into a package deal, claiming performance benefits. It’s part of an industry trend to harness several chips into a dogsled that drives systems performance forward given the slowing rate of performance gains in individual chips.

Toyota Motor Corp. announced this week a plan to start granting royalty-free licenses on the company’s closely guarded hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) patents. It will assign as many as 23,740 through 2030.

Japan’s largest car maker will also offer “fee-based” technical support to purchasers of their powertrain electrification systems, including Toyota motors, batteries, PCUs and control ECUs. Toyota is seeking to help vehicle manufacturers who are new to HEV development reach their performance goals as soon as possible.

So why is Toyota doing this? Out of generosity? Or its dogged pursuit of a reduction in CO2 emissions?

Toyota described its goal as “driving global vehicle electrification.”

Glimpses of that military communications future are taking shape through the smoke of the conflict between the U.S. and Huawei, the telecommunications giant created by communist China to dominate manufacturing and implementation of 5G networks.

5G data moves at 10 gigabytes per second, and latency is less than a millisecond, a hundred times faster than 4G. These attributes will connect sensors and enable unmanned air, sea, subsurface, and ground vehicles to become autonomous.

In addition to power, systems integrators must deal with beam control, targeting, and controls. “we’ve got to get more power — but to me the problem I have today is the integration of that [laser] into my existing combat system,” says Rear Adm. Ron Boxall, director of surface warfare on the Navy’s Pentagon staff.

If the laser weapon doesn’t get targeting data from the ship’s radars, it must rely entirely on its own built-in optics. Conversely, the laser’s optics can’t provide targeting data to any other weapon on the ship. Systems integration plays a big role.

With private launch companies now in the market with reusable rockets, the price has fallen, but it still costs around $5,000 per kilogram to put a satellite into low-earth orbit and $30,000 per kg to put an object into geosynchronous orbit.

Professor Klaus Schilling, chair of robotics and telematics at Würzburg University in Germany, sees the benefit of using groups of small satellites to form a network to do what a larger satellite does, and provide better temporal and spatial resolution than a traditional multi-ton satellite.

Shilling’s plan involves small satellites approximately 3 kg each being placed into low-Earth orbit and be able to coordinate with other satellites in the “swam” using AI and deep learning.

MIT and NASA have come up with a new way to make an aircraft wing out of “metamaterials” that utilize triangles of matchstick-like struts to change the shape of the wing during flight automatically – no foolin.’

“We’re able to gain efficiency by matching the shape to the loads at different angles of attack,” says NASA’s Nicholas Cramer, who was the lead author of a joint paper between NASA and MIT published late last month in Smart Materials and Structures.

“We’re able to produce the exact same behavior you would do actively, but we did it passively.”

The Trump administration’s budget request gets many things right, but there are areas where Congress can — and should — improve on the proposal.

It starts with the overall dollar amount. The administration’s request of $750 billion aligns with the needs outlined by former Defense Secretary James Mattis. His recommendation for annual Pentagon budget increases of between 3 and 5 percent above inflation were subsequently endorsed by the bipartisan National Defense Strategy Commission.

Within the next 15 years, Navy leaders plan to add as many as 30 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, including 22 new, high-tech flight III versions and eight state-of-the-art DDG 51 Flight IIA versions.

In addition to adding 30 new destroyers, the Navy’ also seeks 15 new frigates and as many as 32 new attack submarines in the next 15 years. While many new ships are under construction, the current number of Navy ships is roughly in the high 280s — a number that Navy leaders say they hope to grow to 355 by 2034.

The RFP for the Next Generation Combat Vehicle – Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (NGCV-OMFV) opens up competition for industry to provide optionally manned fighting vehicle prototype designs. From that pool, the Army will choose — in the second quarter of fiscal 2020 — as many as two teams to build 14 prototypes.

The OMFV is to replace the M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle starting in 2026 and enable soldiers to maneuver quickly on the battlefield, as well as deliver infantry soldiers and firepower where they are needed most.

In an attempt to protect government IT systems against targeted attacks and enable quick responses in the event of incidents, the Australia Cyber Security Center will deliver intelligence, cyber security and offensive operations in support of the Australian Government and Australian Defense Force (ADF).

The government will invest in the creation of cyber security ‘SPRINT teams’ and a Cyber Security Response Fund, according to a joint statement from the minister of defense, Christopher Pyne and minister of defense industry, Senator Linda Reynolds.